The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for displaying an image and data obtained from a broadcast or other medium, and more particularly, to an image and data display method and apparatus for displaying data classified or individualized for each user synchronized with the image.
Further, the present invention relates to a method of providing information (hereinafter referred to as contents) on a network together with information of goods, including advertisements, and more particularly, to a method of providing the information of goods classified or individualized for each user in relation to the contents.
Recently services of broadcasting data such as characters and pictures, other than images, have been developed to broadcast character data using air waves and data delivery services such as satellite or a CATV. In future, when broadcasting becomes digital, a large amount of data can be transmitted simultaneously with the transmission of images using data compression techniques and the data multiplexing techniques and accordingly it is believed that these data broadcasting services will increase extensively.
The displaying methods used in the conventional data broadcasting will now be described below.
Regarding character broadcasting, data is multiplexed in an unoccupied area of the surface waves and air being transmitted and electric waves received by a receiving terminal are then divided into images and data. Since the data broadcast is not related to the images broadcast, the data is displayed separately from the display images. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, a display screen is divided into two portions so that an image is displayed in one of the portions and data is displayed in the other. Generally, that images and data are displayed in a display screen alternately by a remote control operation. Another display method waits until reception of the data is completed before displaying it while an image is viewed. Since a temporary memory area is also provided in the terminal, it is used to receive and store the data for later viewing.
In any event, since the data is independent from the image, the data can be viewed at any time regardless of the image starting from the time of completing the reception of the data.
Further, in the service known as interactive television, data related to an image is transmitted together with the image. The data is multiplexed in the unoccupied area of the terrestrial and air waves to be transmitted in the same manner as the character broadcasting. When data related to a scene being viewed arrives at the terminal, a specific icon is displayed at a corner of the image to notify a viewer of the arrival. When the viewer designates display of the data, the display screen is divided into two portions as shown in FIG. 8 and the image and the data is displayed at the same time. There is also a method that displays an image and data on one display screen alternately.
However, recently, Internet television capable of viewing a home page (discussed below) on the Internet has been developed. The display method thereof is substantially identical with the character broadcasting and the home page is displayed without quite synchronizing with an image. Generally, the display method thereof involves the method of displaying a television image and the home page on two display screens at the same time as shown in FIG. 8. Also, a method of displaying the television image and the home page on one display screen alternately is used. Further, in recent television programs, an address of a home page is often displayed to the viewers, requiring that the user input the address in order to view the home page by means of the Internet television.
The prior art pertinent to the interactive television and the Internet television is described in “The Age of Digital Televisions Has Come !”, Nikkei Trendy, '96, Oct., pp. 54-73 issued by Nikkei Home Co. in detail.
Next, there is the World Wide Web (WWW) on the Internet for providing contents on a network. In the WWW, contents provided therein are named in the home page. The home page is generally described by the script language known as HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). Further, in HTML, the relationship among the home pages is defined as a hyper link. The user designates a WWW server and a home page by a unified format named the URL (Uniform Resource Locator). When the WWW server receives a request from the user, the WWW server transmits a proper home page to the user.
In a general method of providing information on goods in the WWW, advertisements (information of goods) relating to the home page are displayed in the same home page. Since the information of goods relative to the home page required by the user is provided, the power of appealing to the user so that the user buys goods is increased. Generally, the home page and the advertisement often correspond to each other in advance.
An information service considered by the present invention is described below using a definite example.
Recently, with improvement of the performance of hardware and the diffusion of network, the interactive information service can be easily realized. The interactive information service mentioned here is the information service having bidirectional characteristics in which not only can an information provider send information to the user one-sidedly but also the user can access the information provider positively. For example, the conventional television broadcasting and the radio broadcasting are one-way media from a television program provider to viewers and listeners, while the facsimile and telephone which are bidirectional media are used to realize the interactive information service such as a viewer participating in a program. Further, an experimental television program employing the Internet and the communication using other communication methods instead of the facsimile and telephone has also started. Henceforth, it is believed that information services using television broadcasting and the Internet together will increased with the boom of the Internet.
In such a bidirectional information service, an effective and efficient inquiry from the information provider to the users is important. Unless an inquiry is first made by the information provider, interaction is also not started. Considering the merits of the information provider, it is desirable that large effects are attained by the inquiry with reduced labor.
Considering how to provide information effectively, information (which is sometimes referred to as data since the information is contrasted with images) is sent together with images and accordingly it is desirable that both of the information and the images have relationship. Utilization methods include, for example, in a television program a questionnaire on the program is sent simultaneously or more detailed information of goods is sent in a television commercial. When a television terminal capable of accessing to the Internet or a CD-ROM is considered, an automatic access program to an address of a home page or data in the CD-ROM may be merely sent. In this manner, when the access method from the image to the information is defined, there is a merit that the viewers are attracted by the image and move to the bidirectional media immediately. At the same time, the viewers can know detailed information pertinent to the image easily.
As a method of providing information effectively, there is considered important that information suitable for each individual user is sent directly. For example, in a current television commercial and television shopping, the same image information is provided to all of the users uniformly. However, when it is realized that information of goods having appeal in fact can be provided to each individual user together with images on the basis of customer information (character and taste of users), the efficiency of marketing is improved remarkably. The customer information includes characters and taste of the users. At the same time, since information suitable to the user's Interest is sent to the user, the efficiency of reference to the information is also increased. Such individualization technique is called mass customization or one-to-one marketing. Further, when different information is sent to each user, the information provider's load is increased and a load of the network is also heavy. Accordingly, the users are classified by common characteristics so that information is provided to each classified user. The concept “classification” is also contained in the mass customization.
Problems in case where the above-mentioned interactive information service is applied to the conventional image and data display method are now described.
First, in character broadcasting, relationships are not specifically defined between images and data. Similarly, it is not premised that relationships exists between television images and home pages on Internet television. Accordingly, there was no problem even if the images and data were displayed in different display screens independently. Further, in the character broadcasting, even if the method of displaying data on the image was performed, it was sufficient only by notifying that preparation of display was completed after reception of data had been finished. However, in the information service pertinent to the present invention, since data relative to the images is treated, it is necessary to notify the users which scene of the images the data corresponds to.
However, data relative to images is displayed together with the images in the current interactive television. Accordingly, the display method in which a scene of the images to which the relative data corresponds is transmitted to the user. However, since it is not a display method in which the mass customization is premised and the same data is delivered to the users, data to be viewed synchronized with the images is all the same for the users.